The invention relates to a delivery device for packaging and mixing dental paste components useful for forming a hardenable dental composition. The invention also relates to creating a hardenable dental composition and the formation of a package assembly therefor. The invention is particularly adapted for dental paste components which have non-self-leveling material properties.
In connection with the preparation of dental filling and restorative materials, it is often necessary to mix two or more materials together to define a final, useful composition capable of undergoing a hardening reaction. The ratio of the mixture of materials is often critical in order to define the proper characteristics for the final composition. In the dental field, such materials may be used to prepare a hardened composition for a variety of dental restorative applications.
It is known to prepare such compositions by providing the materials in bulk and then measuring out defined amounts for combination, with subsequent mixing. Such materials may be in powdered, paste or liquid form, and the final mixture may be the result of mixing two or more of such materials. One current technique for combination is to manually transfer materials with a spoon and dropper from bulk containers and then dispense and measure out the correct ratio of materials onto a mixing pad for mixing. Alternatively, unit dose delivery methods such as capsules for mixing powders and liquids are known. However, such unit dose delivery methods require several steps including activation, and a mechanical mixing device which takes up space, is expensive and is not readily portable. In addition, reliance on the user to measure amounts of the required base materials may lead to error in preparing the mix ratio of such materials, and the use of containers or carriers in the process may, even if the appropriate amount of material is measured out, leave residue amounts of such material on those containers or carriers as the material is transferred during the dispensing and mixing process, thereby adversely affecting the appropriate mix ratio of materials. Such materials are often expensive and thus such waste is costly.